Of course, if prohibition causes one to have psychosis, one can expect a few angry calls and messages to be flung in anger at those who claim that cannabis may have caused one’s psychosis.

So if in 2010 I butthurt them, my apologies to Dr Sharon Hirsch and Frank.

This coming from an organisation that used to be headed by Peter Reynolds…

Comment Warriors is a campaign to make the truth about cannabis clear.

That is an assertion which we would all like to be true but it has nothing to do with science or evidence. I mean, really, advancing YouTube documentaries and blog and forum posts as evidence says it all! Dr Robert Melamede, CEO of Cannabis Science, would not approve of your distortion of his work either.

If you apply the same logic and standard of evidence that you are then it follows that the evidence that cannabis causes psychosis is also conclusive.

Evidence based policy required. I’ve had my share of ‘haters’ for not repeating hearsay… specifically aimed at the CLEAR leadership.

We need to be prepared for The Daily Mail Editor to promote ‘Reefer Madness’ indefinitely. We as cannabis activist must not sink to their level and spread misinformation and hate.

We need to win round enough Daily Mail staff to facilitate change themselves. If a change in policy comes at The Daily Mail it will come from within. This is why I focus on the moderated Right Minds debates. Because these debates are moderated, I know internal Daily Mail staff read the posts… and standing around the water cooler will say… ‘those anti-prohibitionists have a point’. Honesty and integrity are currency in this debate.

The numbers of people calling an end to prohibition is only increasing. Don’t make the job harder than it already is by playing the hate game.

We have the moral high ground, don’t squander it.

Respect and Best Wishes Peter and CLEAR
PS: Ending cannabis prohibition is the uniting aim.

It is indeed unfortunate that most of what we rely on is empirical evidence, but that is only because we haven’t been given clinical trials. Just because we haven’t been given that doesn’t mean we can ignore the truth and not share this information.

If there were only a few people who’d had success with cannabis extracts, then this would be a different matter. But there are several hundred to thousands of people who have had amazing success with this medicine, including eliminating cancer. I’ve only spoken with about 70 to 90 patients and oil distributors myself, but that’s just me; there are so many more out there. As importantly, there are scientific studies supporting everything that people are seeing with this medicine. Studies show cannabinoids are effective against every kind of cancer imaginable, as well as virtually every disease you can think of, including diabetes, MS, heart disease, Parkinson’s, ALS, IBS, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, COPD, depression, and more. Alone, these tissue and animal studies prove nothing in humans, but when you have humans actively using extracts and demonstrating human efficacy, that’s another thing entirely.

Do people really believe that smoking and vaporizing cannabis is the extent of this medicine’s efficacy? Isn’t it incredible that burning a substance and inhaling the resulting smoke through the lungs, organs designed to process oxygen and not nutrients, works better than pharmaceuticals which have had billions invested in them? Everybody in this movement knows that people say smoking cannabis works better than any pharmaceuticals in many cases, and that’s just smoking! It makes sense that ingesting the pure oil of the cannabis plant in large quantities would be more effective, and the people doing it are eliminating cancer and other diseases from their bodies. That’s just what’s happening.

For the record, Dr. Melamede believes these things as well, and got involved in treating people with extracts because of the work of Rick Simpson, which is why I got involved too. He knows what this medicine can really do.

I understand this issue is complex and certainly quite hard to believe without extensive exposure to the material. All I can really say is to keep looking into this. The only reason I know this is true, beyond all the science and documentaries and forum posts, is from actually talking to people. Like I said, I’ve spoken to almost a hundred in my five years of being in this movement, and at that point, you know for certain that this medicine can eliminate diseases and conditions. I’ve also seen it work with my own eyes.

I look forward to the day when a clinical trial will prove this once and for all. If only 100 terminal cancer patients could be given the full treatment, that would easily and quickly reveal just how effective this really is.

@ Kaabi – For cannabis to be effective, the THC etc has to get into the bloodstream from the stomach, which of course is a water based system. The problem with ingesting cannabis is that it’s not water soluble and so simply swallowing the oil is not going to work very well – indeed this is why you can’t simply inject cannabis products.

Because of this, it means simply swallowing a blob of oil is going to be a very inefficient way to administer the dose. Sure, some of the oil will make its way into the bloodstream, but much of it will simply be excreted out and wasted.

If you want to ingest cannabis you need to put it through a process of infusing it with same medium such as butter or cooking fats which you can digest, or (as with SATIVEX) dissolving it in alcohol to make a tincture. Simply melting it into some chocolate will work. This is why cannabis is eaten in hashcakes and things.

Oil is a concentrated form of cannabis – the oils with none of the plant material, it therefore very strong. Cakes etc made with oil will be very, very potent.

Of course the aim of using cannabis to cure an illness isn’t to get very stoned, but the THC etc has to get into the blood stream before it can do its work. It does seem that quite high doses are needed for cancer treatment, so getting very stoned is “side effect” which is not going to be easy to avoid.

I really want this claim of being a cancer cure to be true and there is a lot of good science to support the idea. Personally I applaud efforts to provide people who have no other alternative with cannabis medicine, but we don’t prove anything by doing things which are easy to criticise from very simple principles such as a dubious method of administration.

My feeling is the best way to administer the dose is via vapeing, That way the patient can titrate his dose most easily, but ingestion is certainly an option but it has to be done right.

It would be more accurate to say that some cannabinoids can kill some cancer cells. That’s true. It’s a very different thing to saying cannabis cures cancer and it’s not just quibbling over words. This is people’s lives we are dealing with.

Its not what you know its what you can prove

I understand Peter’s and Derek’s caution in presenting a rational, research-validated assessment of cannabis’s curative properties, but we all know that there is a lot of uncorroborated anecdotal ‘evidence’ for its holistic efficacy, as well as many peer-reviewed scientific studies.
I have anecdotes myself: for instance, a friend who smoked cannabis for 30 years, then presented with type 2 diabetes within two years of stopping. A coincidence, maybe, but I don’t think so. He may have had the disease already, and his cannabis was keeping it under control; something that I have seen expressed elsewhere. Anyway, it galls me that he won’t entertain the idea!

Google practically any ailment and cannabis, and you will have pages of links to both anecdotes and research evidence.

Anybody watching ‘Run From The Cure’ will see that Rick Simpson is a decent, honest man, totally convinced of the effectiveness of his oil against cancers and many other diseases: this honesty and self-belief has cost him the right to live safe and free in his own country, after all. Although I find the film naive and sentimental in places, the heartfelt testimony of the ordinary people who claim that he helped them is moving.

I honestly believe that we won’t get anywhere until enough of the public realise what a safe and effective medicine cannabis is. Then the lid will be off, and the politicians and media will have no other option than to start telling the truth.
Cancer is the thing that scares most people: there is hardly a family in the land that hasn’t been touched by the suffering and despair that it brings: I don’t believe in making outrageous claims, and giving people false hope, but if enough people hear enough to start investigating via the ubiquitous eye-on-the-world that is the internet, there will be an unstoppable movement.

Peter has kindly invited me to post something about what we can all do to help get out the truth and, despite this taking me an embarrassing amount of time, for various reasons, I hope to present it to him within a few days. Watch this space.

@kaabi – I’m not saying swallowing a blob of oil won’t work at all, I’m saying it won’t work efficiently and a lot – most – of it will be wasted. Dissolve the oil in clocolate – it’s very easy to do – and you’ll get a far higher rate of absorbtion.

Swallowing a blob of oil will mean the oil goes into the gut as one (more or less) spherical entity. Any absorbtion that happens can only take place on the outside surface of that blob. At least break it up into lots of small blobs! Simply swallowing the oil in one blob is the worst way to try to ingest it and as I say, it’s a dubuious way to administer it.

The problem is if you’re trying to prove a medical benefit, you have to demonstrate that you’re method of delivery works and that you understand how it works. Simply swallowing a blog is clearly flawed.

It’s quite possible there are ways to increase the absorption and those sound like they could do good. But at least when it comes to application, people have been having success doing it as I described. That’s why I assume the bioavailability is at least fairly high, because I don’t see how these effects could be achieved with such an ultimately small dose. If that is the case, I can only imagine what can be achieved with fully bioavailable cannabis oil.

One method of administration that has becoming more popular is the suppository use of oil. Several people I know have been giving their patients suppositories and seeing faster results than through regular ingestion. People have also filled capsules with a mix of cannabis oil and hemp seed oil, and I’m sure the latter helps with bioavailability to some extent, especially since it is pure fat. A remarkable thing about this movement is how many different types and blends of extracts people have made, and essentially all of them achieve the same incredible healing results, despite the lack of standardization. It seems that as long as the source material is of high quality and the process doesn’t destroy any cannabinoids or leave any solvent in the oil, it works. However, there have been people who’ve had great results with trim and mids-sourced oil, so lower-quality stuff still works to some extent, but why cut corners unless you need to?

Once again, I encourage people to talk to real patients and get a sense of what they’ve experienced. Greenpassion.org and HempOilHope.org are good forums to read experiences on.

You can see “Run form the Cure” here http://www.clear-uk.org/run-form-the-cure-the-rick-simpson-story/

I watched it again last night and I agree with your assesment of it Stickybud. Rick is clearly a genuine and honest guy, but he doesn’t strike me as a person with a deep scientific knowledge of the subject.

It’s an interesting film, if you have’t seen it, watch it now.

It is possible that hash would work just as well and I know that can be produced using even purer processes. I look forward to the day when extracts can be made in labs with supercritical CO2 or the like, but it’s possible that hash could achieve the same thing, there just hasn’t been that much experience ingesting large quantities of it.

As for rubbing into the gums, that does seem like a better way to do it and I do know some people who have taken it that way because it’s also a good way to avoid the taste. Pure cannabis oil simply does not taste pleasant, as there are no sugars in it. In any case, much more research is needed for bioavailability analysis as well as strain-condition relationships. Thanks for elaborating on these issues of digestion, anything that can be done to make this more effective is worth doing, especially when it’s as simple as splitting the dose into smaller units or mixing it with a fatty oil.

OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 1):

Federal researchers implanted several types of cancer, including leukemia and lung cancers, in mice, then treated them with cannabinoids (unique, active components found in marijuana). THC and other cannabinoids shrank tumors and increased the mice’s lifespans. Munson, AE et al. Antineoplastic Activity of Cannabinoids. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Sept. 1975. p. 597-602.

OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER, (PART 2):

In a 1994 study the government tried to suppress, federal researchers gave mice and rats massive doses of THC, looking for cancers or other signs of toxicity. The rodents given THC lived longer and had fewer cancers, “in a dose-dependent manner” (i.e. the more THC they got, the fewer tumors). NTP Technical Report On The Toxicology And Carcinogenesis Studies Of 1-Trans- Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, CAS No. 1972-08-3, In F344/N Rats And B6C3F Mice, Gavage Studies. See also, “Medical Marijuana: Unpublished Federal Study Found THC-Treated Rats Lived Longer, Had Less Cancer,” AIDS Treatment News no. 263, Jan. 17, 1997.

OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 3):

Researchers at the Kaiser-Permanente HMO, funded by NIDA, followed 65,000 patients for nearly a decade, comparing cancer rates among non-smokers, tobacco smokers, and marijuana smokers. Tobacco smokers had massively higher rates of lung cancer and other cancers. Marijuana smokers who didn’t also use tobacco had no increase in risk of tobacco-related cancers or of cancer risk overall. In fact their rates of lung and most other cancers were slightly lower than non-smokers, though the difference did not reach statistical significance. Sidney, S. et al. Marijuana Use and Cancer Incidence (California, United States). Cancer Causes and Control. Vol. 8. Sept. 1997, p. 722-728.

OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 4):

Donald Tashkin, a UCLA researcher whose work is funded by NIDA, did a case-control study comparing 1,200 patients with lung, head and neck cancers to a matched group with no cancer. Even the heaviest marijuana smokers had no increased risk of cancer, and had somewhat lower cancer risk than non-smokers (tobacco smokers had a 20-fold increased Lung Cancer risk). Tashkin D. Marijuana Use and Lung Cancer: Results of a Case-Control Study. American Thoracic Society International Conference. May 23, 2006.

addendum. Sorry about the hair restorer! if only eh? ;)

I just checked menmedia again and they appear to have completely removed comments from the article. Wish I’d taken a screenshot.

Yes THC can be harmful under certain circumstances. Anyone can have too much in the wrong place and it lead to nasty outcomes – there’s no need for pre-disposition. As for people with psychosis and schizophrenia there are a large minority of them who find that cannabis makes their symptoms worse but that’s not the same as making the condition worse or causing the condition.

Furthermore, the majority of researchers who study the topic do not have any experience of psychosis themselves. This means that they are at a disadvantage. Just as any woman who has had a baby can tell you it came from her vagina and not her rectum, any person who has had psychosis can tell you it it caused by information not chemicals.

Previous assertions in postings to this thread indicate a lack of anatomical knowledge and impel me to ask: “How are you folks medically qualified to pontificate on the subject of the anatomy and workings of the digestive tract”?

I have come to the inevitable conclusion that, in common with much of the semi-literate ejecta which litters the internet, many of the postings to this thread are authored by fingers disconnected from well-informed brains.

Let’s start by informing ourselves with a few facts, both anecdotal and scientific.

For a description of the basic anatomy and functions of the stomach and alimentary canal please refer to:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stomach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alimentary_canal

While this is only an entry in Wikipedia it is correct, at least at the basic level. Note that the stomach itself absorbs only the small molecules such as simple sugars and alcohols. The main work of nutrient absorption is done by the Jejunum and Ileum which together make up the small intestine.

By far the most informed anecdote I have yet to find is the testimony of Dr. Dennis Hill, a fully qualified biochemistry scientist of many years experience, who states that he completely cured his Stage IV prostate adenocarcinoma cancer using cannabis. Unfortunately his original very informative site has been taken off the web, but there are still the two YouTube movies in which Dennis tells his testimony:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_7gy7Dyta0

I have no problems whatsoever believing this testimony absolutely, and, without any doubt whatsoever, will be using cannabis oil to cure my cancer when it is my turn. Grandmother, father, brother, first cousin, …, you get the message.

That’s the best anecdotal evidence which is replicated in varying ways many hundreds of times.

Now for the Science:-

There are many hundreds of scientists researching the use of cannabis in institutes all over the world. Perhaps the best way to start researching is to look-up the GW Pharmaceutical’s patent application. Put this phrase, complete with the quote marks, into Google:-

“6. (WO2011110866) PHYTOCANNABINOIDS IN THE TREATMENT OF CANCER”

This will take you to the World Intellectual Property Organization patent database entry for the patent on the use of cannabinoids as a cancer cure filed by our friends GW-Pharmaceuticals.

Note the abstract:-

“This invention relates to the use of phytocannabinoids, either in an isolated form or in the form of a botanical drug substance (BDS) in the treatment of cancer. Preferably the cancer to be treated is cancer of the prostate, cancer of the breast or cancer of the colon”.

Also do not ignore the image to the immediate right of the aforesaid abstract. If you are going to attempt to formulate cannabis oil yourself to cure a cancer take heed of the decaboxylate operation. It is essential to make an effective medicine.

Google searches on any of the names in the list will produce references to scientific papers on the subject of cannabis therapy for cancers.

For the eighty-six page portable document format paper which details the patent application go to:-

http://patentscope.wipo.int/search/docservicepdf_pct/id00000015006584.pdf

Note: You should not wait until you have been spat-out by the traditional medical system and are literally moments away from meeting the Grim Reaper to start the cannabis treatment, because in that case, you have left it too late, the Grim Reaper will still pounce promptly in the way that he always does.

Finally, this link well worth exploring:-

http://www.medicalcannabis.com

There are many other reputable web sites all of which will confirm the truth of the statement “Cannabis Cures Cancer”. Google for them.